Wordless Wednesday

Look What I Made

I was fooling around with some of my 'Calder-esque' patterns and I came up with this.

I can't decide if I like it or not... 

It kind of reminds me of the old TV station's sign off signals doesn't it.....? 

(.....maybe it would make nice wrapping paper.....?)

Punny Monday

I'm supposed to respect my elders, but it's getting harder and harder for me to find one now.

(footnote:I'm running out of good puns so I've decided to switch to PARAPROSDOKIANS.

PARAPROSDOKIANS (Winston Churchill loved them) are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.)

Wish in One Hand……

I wish…..

I could sing like Judy Collins

Paint like Monet

Sketch like Tommy Kane (or Danny Gregory, I’m not picky!)

Compose like Gershwin

Play piano like Liberace

Speak French like a Parisian

Write like Harper Lee…………

“Wish in one hand, shit in the other; see which one gets filled first,” my mother used to say.

Damn her wisdom!!!!

Thoughts on a Thusday

Florida-isms

Who knew when I moved here I would have to learn a whole new language. After all, I didn’t leave the country. I just moved south. I’ve lived in the south before but this is totally different than the genteel south of my youth where if you didn’t address your elders with ‘ma’am’ or ‘sir’ you were just ignored.

This is entirely different.

The dialect is totally unique. Not just the accent but the syntax of the language.

I understand the accent. I understand the different emphasis on the syllables. INsurance instead of insSURance….REcycle instead of reCYCLE.

But what are still completely baffling to me are the idioms.

Down here you don’t ‘call in sick’ to work you ‘call out sick’ or ‘call off work’. (Does that mean everyone in the office gets a day off because work was ‘called off’?)

When things are broken they ‘needs fixed’  (and if you are thinking, like I did, these are just phrases used by less educated locals, this particular one is used in a television commercial for a very large home improvement company!)

If you were born here you’re a ‘cracker’ everyone else is a ‘foreigner’. (and just for the record, in the 16 years we’ve been here I’ve only met 4 ‘crackers’!)

I was taught ‘cracker’ was a derogatory word not to be used but apparently down here it’s a source of pride.

‘Staff up’ for season is another one used in a local commercial. Our economy is heavily tourism based so a majority of jobs are seasonal. But ‘staff up’? Sounds a lot like ‘man up’ to me. In that sense “We need to ‘staff up’ for season' takes on a whole ‘nother connotation …..

Wordless Wednesday

À La Alexander Calder

I seem to be fixated on drawing these stylized hands. Adding shapes à la Alexander Calder's mobiles. Just mindless doodles in my sketchbook as I sit and listen to TV at night. It keeps my mind (and body) from wandering into the kitchen for a snack....and that's a good thing. 

Punny Monday

To steal ideas from one person is plagiarism. To steal from many is research.

(footnote:I'm running out of good puns so I've decided to switch to PARAPROSDOKIANS.

PARAPROSDOKIANS (Winston Churchill loved them) are figures of speech in which the latter part of a sentence or phrase is surprising or unexpected; frequently humorous.)

Sketchbook

I am bound and determined to fill up this sketchbook. Good, bad or indifferent.

I'm going to finish if it kills me (time will tell about that....lol.)

It has no theme, or style or any unifying premise other than I'M GOING TO FILL EVERY DAMN PAGE! (although I’m not holding myself to two page spreads or filling the facing pages…..I have to cut myself some slack here….)

So, to that end, I’m using it for exercises from some of the online classes I’ve taken.

In this example it was offered that the blank page might be too intimidating as a whole, to combat that, try breaking it into ‘doable’ boxes and fill each box with an unrelated sketch.

I’m not sure if it was helpful or if it put MORE pressure on me. Now I had to come up with EIGHT ideas instead of just one! 

Ah, living the artist’s life!

Thoughts on a Thursday

The World is Spinning Out of Control

I’m not talking about politics, or Trump, or his cronies, or his cabinet…..oh wait, that’s the same thing….

Nor am I talking about the uptick in violence and intolerance on the streets or the gun problem or healthcare or global warming….

No. I’m talking about television!

Not the content…although that could be an endless rant unto itself…..no I’m talking about program times.

I live an orderly life. A place for everything and everything in its place. The same goes for TV shows. A start time and an end time.  Starting and ending either on the hour or half hour. Nice and tidy.

Now suddenly they start and end at odd moments….three minutes past the hour…..four minutes after the half hour…..what is going on here?????

I totally get the movie networks doing this. A movie has a running time and without commercials to fill in the gaps they start and end when they start and end.

BUT Network television HAS commercials. And TV shows contracted to run on Network television have strict running times to allow for said commercials and to fit into the schedule in nice, neat time slots.

Whose idea was it to change this? And to what purpose?

In order to see the ending of one show it means I miss the beginning of another on a different station (or I switch channels to see the beginning on the next program thereby sacrificing the ending of the previous one.)

Do they think I’m going to alter my viewing habits and stay on their channel just because they’ve made me miss the beginning or ending or a show I chose to watch on another channel?

Are they math impaired and can’t figure out how to time the commercials to stay within the limited time slot?

Or are they just arbitrarily trying to piss me off?

Whatever the reason, this madness must stop!